Beatles news from Steve Marinucci, a journalist with over three decades of experience in the newspaper business and a contributing writer to Billboard and AXS.com and co-host of the Beatles radio show Things We Said Today heard weekly on podbean.com, iTunes and Fab 4 Radio.com.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Fifty years ago: 'The Beatle Cracker Suite'

Fifty years ago in November, 1965, Billboard reported that an EP with seven Lennon and McCartney songs played in the style of classical composer Tchaikovsky would be released and the costs for it would be shared by the Beatles' publishing company Northern Songs Ltd. The EP was to be titled "Beatle Cracker Suite," and was eventually issued by the Arthur Wilkinson Orchestra on EMI Records. The EP was to be issued throughout the world and was to be followed by an album if it did well enough, but it appears there was none.

The seven songs were "From Me To You," "Help!," "It's For You" (written for Cilla Black), "Can't Buy Me Love," "She Loves You," "Ticket To Ride" and "All My Loving." The last song is available on Amazon digitally.